Lithuania, Nigeria forge strong bilateral trade relationship

The Republic of Lithuania and the Federal Republic of Nigeria has forged a strong bilateral trade relationship in order to boost the economic development of both countries.

The Honorary Consul, Republic of Lithuania, Mr. Goodie Ibru explained that this move by the two countries would also open up fresh investment opportunities in agriculture in areas of food processing and value addition.

Ibru during the 2014 Lithuanian National Day celebration added that Lithuania is well known for its agricultural activities and competences and urged Nigeria to partner Lithuania since the federal government is making efforts to diversify the nation’s economy from oil and gas.

“Most of the perishable food crops produced in Nigeria rot away as a result of lack of food processing facilities in the country, Lithuania is calling on Nigerian entrepreneurs to partner Lithuania on areas of food processing so as to prevent food wastage and huge economic loss,” he said.

“This will help to save Nigeria’s foreign exchange which it uses to import food. Nigeria has no business importing food because a huge part of our land is still uncultivated. A strong partnership between Lithuania and Nigerian entrepreneurs will help to correct this, he said.

He noted that currently, the volume of trade between. Nigeria and Lithuania is still low but stressed that as time goes on, Nigerians we begin to see and understand the importance of synergising with their counterparts in Western Europe thereby boosting trade between both countries.

“We already have a diplomatic tie with Lithuania but we do hope that in the nearest future, we would have a full diplomatic tie by establishing an embassy here in Nigeria,” he added.

He pointed out that Lithuania is consistently becoming very visible in socio-economic life of Europe and the world over maintaining that since July 2013, Lithuania has held the rotating Presidency of the council of European Union, and was elected in the same year to United Nations Security Council.

He noted that according to the United Nations Human Development Index report, Lithuania is a very high human development country and has been among the fastest growing economies in the European Union ranked 17th in the world in the ease of doing business index.

“Lithuania’s economy has risen to the status of mostly free achieving its highest economic freedom score over in the 2014 index. It is ranked 11th out of 43 countries in the European region, and its overall score is well above the world and regional averages,” he said.